Modernity in agri

Date wants to maximize tech in farms

ONE of the highlights of this year’s Davao Agri Trade Expo (Date) will be on product processing through innovative technologies more than the focus on growing agricultural products.

According Date program committee chair John Tria, this portion of the program will hopefully help encourage a lot of entrepreneurs to use technology in order to harness and improve agriculture.

Private companies from Israel and Taiwan were invited to present about their own modern measures when growing crops in their lands that are most likely not that conducive to agriculture. Tria said the Israeli delegate will be presenting innovative irrigation.

“As you know, Israel is not a rainforest environment. It’s practically desert and yet they are able to produce more food than they can consume. This is where technology comes in. Despite the lack of water, they are able to produce pomelo. And so that kind of experience is what they will share with us,” Tria said during the Habi at Kape press conference held yesterday, June 20, at Abreeza Ayala Malls.

On the other hand, Taiwan, generally having a rocky soil not fit for agriculture will have a representative to present how they are able to produce coffee, cacao, and banana despite this. Tria said Taiwan’s soil is rich in limestone and yet they have innovated and made use of technologies that allow growing crops.

“It’s these kinds of countries that have innovations that we see a lot on YouTube and Facebook. It’s time we actually see them in flesh when they come to the conference and share how they do it,” he said.

As Israel and Taiwan shares their knowledge of these technologies, a business to business matching will also be done during the event simultaneous to all the talks and the lectures. With a lot of unexpected changes brought about by climate change, Tria said temperate countries like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan started to have shorter growing season.

“They will have production shortfalls in everything from grain to livestock. How will they fill in that supply gap? The Philippines is the Southeast Asian country that is closes to them and if you recall, they keep on visiting the Philippines looking for opportunities for suppliers to supply these commodities to them,” said Tria.